Human Limitations
by Fiercest
Summary: Richard. Barbara. An introspective moment between the sidekicks who grew up. Part #1 of Fragmented.


**Title: **Human Limitations

**Theme: **Long time friends.

**Characters: **Richard Grayson. Barbara Gordon.

**Summary: **An introspective moment between the sidekicks who grew up.

**Note: **This is part of a series that may or may not (_is_. It was a joke) be a crossover between DC and Marvel. Because COME ON. They are awesome. There is no denying this. Note the Tony Stark (Ironman) reference in there somewhere. It's basically going to cover the Bats family, Ironman, Rescue, possibly briefly Spiderman and maybe a dash of the Fantastic 4. Because I can. What shall I call the series? Jinkies that's a toughie. Hurm… Fragmented? Oooh I like it.

…I'll work on it ^^.

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"You grew your hair out," she says, pushing up her glasses which were sliding down the bridge of her nose.

His hand ran through her hair and pulled a lock between their faces, it was peppered silver in between the brilliant reds. "You got old."

"To be fair; it's mostly the stress of all those kids running around in capes, playing superhero."

He scoops her up, arms around her shoulders and skinny little knees, and sets her down in the enormous leather armchair. She laughs, and it's beautiful; he's missed her.

Once that very laugh had been all he'd heard, day in and day out echoing through the almost empty streets and reverberating through the happiest darkness he'd ever known. No matter the danger, conception, controversy or redundancy, Babs had found _joy_ in everything she did. Anything he or Bruce had asked of her she'd done with a smile and at the very least played at enjoying it. She was of the precious few that could still make the Batman smile so very genuinely.

Because she was Barbara Gordon and in her world there was always work to be done.

He misses being a teenager, he misses the safety of that second family that he'd once had.

He misses Bruce, Barbara, _Catwoman_, Tim and Dinah even.

But it doesn't matter. Everyone grows up and he could never have a Peter Pan complex or _god help him_ when Wayne found his sorry ass. And there was way too much clutter and emptiness in the in-between of regrets. Barbara was Batgirl no longer and he was alone.

Richard Grayson Wayne. It hurts.

Her hand is on his cheek. "Bats made a deal."

He doesn't like the sound of it but asks anyway, because it's making her smile so strangely bright.

"Stark is going to help me walk again."

There is emotion and breath and this overwhelming physical need for something which he cannot name.

But he remembers her helping him trick out one of the bikes and joy riding, flipping, racing. Silvery laughs and snorts.

He remembers, in high school, a kick she delivered to his jaw, breaking it and refusing to talk to her for a week.

She walked and ran and he thinks that these past years must have been horrible for _her_.

He doesn't really care about the strings attached, just that _Barbara Gordon_ has a chance again.

So he asks, "Will you go out there again?" That had made her so obviously happy once. It wasn't the gunshot that nearly killed her once, but the overwhelming sense of helplessness.

Barbara Gordon never had and never could be helpless.

There is a faraway look in her eyes and a wry smile on her lips, "I trained the next generation of superheroes. I taught them right from wrong and sent them out into the world." She winks, "Plus, I probably don't look nearly as hot in spandex as I used to." The laugh is loud and silvery as it always has been and he shares it. He finds himself thinking that she would look incredible in anything as long as she smiled.

And, he finds that he _wants_ her out there, although that's unfair.

However, Gotham, he knows, would be the safest place in the world if Barbara was protecting it.

"Maybe," she says.

They sit by the fire, tomorrow flickering before them like the flames as he promises not to leave again.

They're all Bats has left now. They're all each other have.

They are the final remaining fragments of memory.

**Note: I know next to nothing about DC comics for the most part. More than the average joe obviously, but I use wiki for everything because basically the only think I actually read is Ironman. And I'm behind on that because I just started. Be gentle with me -winces-. My interpretation. Deal with it.**

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